The Lighthouse
by MidnightUnderMoonlight
Summary: A midnight encounter between two [former] friends. [Oneshot ZaneAlexis].


**The Lighthouse**

_**Summary: A midnight encounter between two former friends. Zane/Alexis.**_

_**SPOLIER WARNING! To those who haven't seen what happens after the whole 'White Society' scenario yet, this may contain spoilers!!!**_

_**(A/N): Just a little something to make up for me not updating. I'm working on all my stories. No need to worry. It'll just take me some time.**_

_**Disclaimer: Me no own this series or the song 'Collide'. **_

A soft breeze blew by, rustling Alexis' hair slightly and causing her bangs to fall over her eyes. She glanced at her surroundings. A small chill went up and down her spine when she noticed the familiar dark shadows cast by the illuminated moon. The flashing of the beam from the lighthouse entranced her. Nothing had changed. Not one bit.

When was the last time she was even here? It seemed so long ago.

Soft footsteps treading nearby snapped her out of her reverie. Alexis twisted around, both scared and agitated that someone would interrupt her at a time like this.

Piercing turquoise eyes.

She would have gasped, had her mouth not just become suddenly dry at that moment. Her heart skipped a beat, and her palms grew clammy.

"Zane."

They locked gazes.

He stared at her, not even surprised to see her there. "Alexis."

An unsettling feeling abruptly filled her. She chewed the insides of her cheeks, unsure of what to do after that. What was she supposed to say to him? She hadn't seen him or spoken to him in well over a year, though she had heard stories. Rumors were unavoidable, especially if it was about the former King of Obelisk Blue. She was aware of how he was knocked off from his top stature. She'd heard how he'd suffered and struggled to start new and fresh, destroying anything in his way just to get to the top.

Was there even anything to talk about anymore? The only matter that ever connected the two of them in the first place was her brother's disappearance. But that was done and over with.

"Why do you still come here?" he asked out of the blue.

Alexis blinked. During her contemplating, he'd never once taken his eyes off her.

She licked her lips hesitantly. "I don't," she answered. "Why do you?"

Zane crossed his arms. It was then that the Obelisk Queen noticed his dark attire. So the rumors _were_ true.

"I don't either," he said.

Her eyebrows knotted together in confusion. Something about him was different. He seemed . . . _older_ somehow. Even though not much time had passed between then and the last time she saw him. Alexis remembered very clearly when they were at the lighthouse together, the time when he'd warned her that she needed a bodyguard. She'd almost laughed, thinking he was offering. And then he had to go and say he was going to miss her when he graduated. His normally cold and foreboding features softened in those few seconds. He had actually cared. Zane Truesdale had a heart.

But now? At the present time, standing across from him, it looked as if that Zane no longer existed. His black clothes matched his murky presence. The normally cool, but polite, aura she was used to him emitting was not longer there. Instead, he emanated a hard and almost threatening sensation.

He took a step toward her, and she unconsciously took a step back as she watched him walk pass her, over to edge of the pier. He hadn't ask her to join him, but he didn't tell her to eave either. Faltering, Alexis followed Zane, and took an accustomed stance next to him.

"Cat got your tongue?" he asked unceremoniously, gazing at the still waters.

Alexis was taken aback. "I – _what_?"

"You're quieter than usual," he explained curtly.

She fixed her eyes on him intently. "You actually remember what I used to be like?" she questioned, her tone dripping with doubt and sarcasm.

Silence ensued.

Zane had deliberately ignored her remark and looked fiercely at the ocean, practically burning a hole through its watery depths. Or maybe, he just didn't care.

Another gentle wind wafted by. Alexis shivered as goose bumps covered her skin. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, hoping to calm the coldness – literally and figuratively.

She glimpsed at her former friend out of the corner of her eyes. Were they even friends any longer? Acquaintances maybe? Or were they simply a phase in each other's lives? It was too hard to think about. It hurt too much. She knew how much he had changed. She didn't need to question that.

But . . . was he going to change back? Was he even willing?

Alexis shuffled her feet and took a small, almost cautionary, stride closer to him. "Zane?"

He turned his head faintly to acknowledge that he'd heard, but he continued to stare at the ocean.

Alexis sighed quietly. '_Might as well just ask him_,' she thought bitterly.

"What's it like?" she asked abruptly.

This time, Zane turned his full attention on her.

He arched an amused eyebrow at her, silently asking her what she meant. "What's 'what' like?"

"Failing," she answered, flustered, not expecting him to actually respond to her. "Crumpling on your knees and not being able to get back up."

He stared her, searching her clear brown eyes with his sea blue-green ones. What it was exactly he was looking for, she didn't know.

"It's the worst feeling in the world," he replied, breaking his staring contest with her.

Alexis scoffed. "So I guess winning is the _best_ feeling the world, then?"

Zane's eyes fell downward when she'd said that. It wasn't so a much a question as it was a statement. Once again, he disregarded her comment.

If she had hurt him in any way, she hadn't meant to. Something about being in his company right then and there just made her cynical and skeptical. Then again, she'd been that way ever since she woke up from her 'White Society' stage. It was like the normally positive thinking Alexis was replaced with a more untrusting one.

Frustrated, Alexis closed her eyes tightly and ran her fingers through her golden blonde lochs.

"What happened to us?" she mused in a whisper.

A tiny smirk crept its way onto Zane's lips as he eyed her. "We were both brainwashed. I was darkness; you were light. That's what happened to us, Lexi."

Alexis cringed at the comfortable way he used her nickname.

"It's never going to be the same again, is it?" she asked to herself more than to him.

But he answered anyway. "No," he agreed in a virtually disappointed manner. "It's not."

"How's my brother?" he wanted to know, changing the subject without so much as a thought.

"He's fine," she told him bluntly, looking everywhere but his face.

Zane accepted the answer. "How's _your_ brother?"

"He's fine," she said, still avoiding his eyes. "They're both fine. All of them are. We're all just one big happy family. Everything is just great. No problems here. I'm doing _wonderfully_. I mean, yeah – like you said – I _was_ brainwashed, but that's over with now. I'm back to normal. Everything is back to normal. I should be happy, but I'm not. I'm – "

"Lexi."

She paid no heed to her name as unanticipated tears welled up in her eyes.

" – doing well in my classes. Jaden's as lazy as ever. Chazz hasn't changed much either. We've all made some new friends. You'd think I'd be satisfied with that, huh? Even though so much has happened, we're all still together. Well, we're not _all_ still together. _You're_ not with us –"

"**_Lexi_**."

Alexis stopped rambling, hearing the aggravation and apprehension in his voice, as she attempted to hold back her tears. She wasn't entirely sure why she even wanted to cry.

Zane stared at her. She recognized the look in his eyes. It was pity. He was actually feeling sorry for her.

She turned away and hugged herself, not being able to handle the situation.

"Why is this so hard?" she whimpered, letting a single tear fall down her right cheek.

There was a short pause before he regrettably gave her the answer she didn't want to hear. "Because I've changed – _we've_ changed, and we can't change back."

Alexis gulped, wiping the lone tear that had managed to escape. She spun around to face him. He was only standing a foot away. All she had to do was reach out, and she would have been able to touch him.

"Why not?"

"It's impossible."

She cast her eyes downward. "So . . . that's it?"

"That's it," he confirmed.

She clenched her fists together. Alexis didn't know precisely what it was that possessed her to do it, but she knew she needed to. Choking back a sob, she took two quick steps toward him and wrapped her arms around his torso, and commenced to let her tears fall freely.

Zane stood in a momentary state of shock, having not expected this sort of reaction from her. After a few seconds, he slowly and tentatively returned the gesture, enveloping her in the same embrace.

Alexis sniffled, burying her face deeper into his chest, taking in the warmth radiating from his body. Both of her hands moved from around his waist and clenched his blazer instead. It felt like she was holding on for dear life.

They stood that way for how long, neither knew. It could have been just two minutes, but seemed like an eternity. Gradually, she unwound herself from him and shakily started dabbing the leftover tears from her eyes and cheeks with her. He still had his arms draped loosely around her hips, a little afraid that if he'd let go, she might fall.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

Zane watched as she tried to dry her eyes. They were swelled up and looked bloodshot and puffy, and her nose and cheeks were a rosy pink color.

"Me, too," he said.

Alexis heard the double meaning.

She gazed at him through her blurry vision. His expression had softened modestly, but not much. Still, it was a huge difference from the way he was looking at her when he first ran into her.

'_Maybe it's not **that** hard_,' she thought hopefully. It was the first, and probably only, optimistic notion that had gone through her head the entire night.

"I figured you hated me," he said.

Alexis shook her head, smiling vaguely. "The easy part is hating you; the hard part is . . . admitting I will care about you forever."

His eyes widened at her confession. Once again, Zane was thrown off from her reaction. The slack hold he had around her waist tightened.

"I've changed, Lexi," he warned her. "I've done things you wouldn't be proud of. And I'll keep doing them. Even you can't stand in my way."

She looked up at him, noting how he had returned to the dark Zane she had encountered a while ago.

"Well . . . at least your honest," she said, chuckling.

He didn't laugh. He didn't even smile.

"Lexi."

She clenched her jaw and placed her hands on top of his that were encircling her hips. "You haven't changed that much," she said. "If you had, then you wouldn't have advised me about it. No matter what, there's a small part of you that still cares."

His eyes narrowed at her observation.

She continued. "I know what you'd choose if you had to pick between being number one and being with me. I know I'm going to come second. But one day . . . one day when it really matters, I will come first. It's up to you to decide when."

She steadily removed his hands from her hips. He simply stared at her. Too many emotions clogged his features for her to tell what he was thinking.

"Lexi . . ." he trailed off. "You can't – "

She held up her hand, signaling him to stop. "It's okay," she said sadly. "I'll wait."

With that, she took a few steps back and positioned herself in the same spot she would stand when they were in school together, returning her attention back to the deep marine.

"Are you coming back here tomorrow?" she inquired.

Zane looked at her forlornly. "I don't know."

She nodded. "We'll just see then, right?"

He stared up at the tall, white lighthouse. "Yeah, we'll see."

_**(A/N): Ok. I know. It's really bad. But I just felt like writing this. I wanted to portray something realistic – a probable encounter, in which if these characters were to try to get together, it wouldn't be anywhere near perfect. Let's face it. Zane's priorities lie with dueling. He cares about Alexis, we all know that, but if he had to choose between the two, which would he actually pick? It's hard to define the relationship they had at the beginning. Personally, I think it's something deeper than friendship. I don't know if I'd call it love, but they drew on each other's strength when Alexis' brother disappeared. Now, they've changed so much (particularly Zane) that it's hard to go back. Under these circumstances, would they be able to love?**_

_**Collide**_

_The dawn is breaking_

_A light shining through_

_You're barely waking_

_And I'm tangled up in you_

_Yeah_

_I'm open, you're closed_

_Where I follow, you'll go_

_I worry I won't see your face_

_Light up again_

_Even the best fall down sometimes_

_Even the wrong words seem to rhyme_

_Out of the doubt that fills my mind_

_I somehow find_

_You and I collide_

_I'm quiet you know_

_You make a frist impression_

_I've found I'm scared to know I'm always on your mind_

_Even the best fall down sometimes_

_Even the stars refuse to shine_

_Out of the back you fall in time_

_I somehow find_

_You and I collide_

_Even the best fall down sometimes_

_Even the wrong words seem to ryhme_

_Out of the doubt that fills your mind_

_You finally find_

_You and I collide_

_You finally find_

_You and I collide_

_You finally find_

_You and I collide_


End file.
